December 2016 "Improving Good Governance among Cooperatives and CBOs in Palestine"

Contracting Party: The Swedish Cooperative Centre We Effect)Funding Agency: The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and We EffectStarting Date: January 2014Ending Date: December 2016

This project is one of the few initiatives that addresses good governance principles among Palestinian cooperatives. It is a continuation of previous phases that initially started in the year 2011. The specific objective of the project is “Improving Good Governance Practices among Palestinian Cooperatives and Community Based Organization (CBOs)”. This objective responds to the challenging governance environment that faces CBOs and cooperatives.

The main approach of the project is empowering civil society organization so they can act as the voice of the people. Accordingly, the networking activities of the project help coops and CBOs to work together with local authorities, national authorities, NGOs, donors and policy makers. Thus, this project operates on the principles of local empowerment, participatory governance, demand-responsiveness, and enhanced local capacity. The project gives control over planning decisions and investment resources to community groups and local governments.

The project will be targeting Palestinian coops and CBOs covering 80 localities all over Palestine. The project will be reaching out to a wide and varied cluster by targeting three levels of cooperatives together with CBOs and individual beneficiaries.

The project will target 50 cooperatives. On first level are cooperatives that were chosen based on their specialization (members in the Palestinian Agricultural Cooperatives Union, or led by women). They will receive capacity building, technical support as well as field visits. On second level, other cooperatives will be targeted to participate in capacity building interventions along with cooperatives, where needs assessment will be conducted. On third level, more cooperatives will be targeted by drama works, media and publications. Furthermore, 12 community based organizations (CBOs) will be targeted. They will implement social capital and leadership initiatives.

The main outcomes of the project will be enabling Palestinian Coops to practice good governance rules and requirements in addition to empowering CBOs to implement social capital principles. These interventions will respond to the main problem of the project. The core problem that the project of this document seeks to address is Palestinian cooperatives face governance challenges. It is perceived that this core problem is derived from four basic problems described in detail in the problem analysis section. Moreover, the project will result into empowering the capacities of cooperatives’ staff and stakeholders as well as enhancing the outreach and cooperation among cooperatives and their different stakeholders.